Every Day, Every Hour

For a while it looked as though Finland's time had come once more. It was the only country on Russia's European border that had not yet been reduced to satellite status; since war's end, the doughty Finns had lived uneasily on Russian "tolerance." Last week, the Finnish Communists made a bid for power.

"Come On, Boys." The Red push started at Kemi, a lumber town 50 miles from the Arctic Circle. Kemi's lumberjacks had been on strike for higher wages all summer; last week, Finland's Social Democratic government ordered the men back to work, sent police to Kemi to help enforce order. To the Communist bosses, that situation seemed ready-made for their purposes. To launch their offensive with a bang, the Red bosses decided to start a riot at Kemi.

One sunny afternoon last week, the Communists staged a rally of 2,000 strikers at Kemi. A sound-truck of the Finnish-Russian Friendship Society blared: "Come on, boys, let's go and throw out the cops!" The boys went at the police barricade, hurled insults, sticks & stones. The police first tossed a few tear-gas grenades, but when a fresh breeze dispersed the gas, they started shooting as the crowd kept on coming. Two workers were killed. Troops from a nearby garrison finally restored order. The riot's Communist ringleader was put in jail, where he promptly went on a hunger strike and claimed he had been in Kemi for a vacation.

After this short overture, the Communist plan of campaign went into full swing. The Reds' idea was to paralyze Finland through a carefully staggered wave of strikes. According to their meticulous timetable, the building workers' union--which like most other unions in Finland is infiltrated by Communists--was to strike the day before the Kemi blowup. Next day it was to be the dockers' turn, then the food workers' (including bakers and brewers). At intervals the woodworkers, truck drivers, textile workers and stonemasons were to follow.

Ostensibly, the strikes were to be for high wages; actually, the Communists' obvious aim was to force their way back into the government (from which a crushing electoral defeat had dislodged them in July 1948). But President Juho Paasikivi's Social Democratic government was ready for the Communist attack.

"It Is Hard Work." The government called out army units to maintain order. The Social Democratic Central Organization of Trade Unions ordered all its member unions to stop their strikes or be expelled. Chief strategist of Finland's courageous defense against the Red assault was a brilliant, little-known Socialist named Unto Varjonen. He is a minister-without-portfolio, but Finns know that his specific job is to fight Communists.

Varjonen has built up a unique anti-Communist underground which infiltrates unions to counteract Communist infiltration, matches the Communists cell for cell. Said one of Varjonen's men: "It is hard work fighting Communists. You have to be ready every day, every hour."

This week it looked as though Varjonen and his friends were succeeding in their hard work. The big strike campaign seemed on the verge of collapse. More & more of the 30,000 strikers went quietly back to work. The building, brewery and bakers' unions were going back; most woodworkers ignored the strike call. The dockworkers were the last holdouts, but by week's end even they were caving in.

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